Pretec demonstrates SD, CF I/O cardsBy
Mike Tomkins(Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 13:43 EDT)A press release from Pretec Electronics Corp. announces that it is showing several Secure Digital and CompactFlash I/O cards at the Computex show in Taipei.Including along with a CF Barcode Reader and Secure Digital Presenter card is one item that may be of interest to our readers - a Secure Digital Camera, the SD SmartCam. Specs are, as you'd probably expect, fairly limited - a VGA CMOS sensor that captures video and still images that can be interpolated to as large as 1280 x 1024 pixels. The press release mentions a built-in flash, although the product photos we've been given don't appear to show one. Regardless, this could be an interesting gadget for anybody with a compatible PDA (likely limited to certain Palm models, we're not sure if any of the PocketPC PDAs use Secure Digital storage).

SD Camera(SmartCam) with VGA CMOS senor, can take still image picture up to 20 frames per second or capture video clips up to 1280X1024 resolution, which is 100% better than most color screen cellular phone today. The specially designed SD Camera is equipped with Flashlight, enable users to capture the precious memories wherever and whenever. Samples are available now.

SD Presenter allows PocketPC™ equipped with SD I/O slot plug directly into big screen monitor or projector running full-color presentation of PowerPoint and other printable Windows applications, up to full XGA 1024X768 resolution. SD Presenter supports various outputs such as VGA, Composite Video, and S-Video. Samples are available now.

Pretec SD I/O cards will be working both for PocketPC (available now) and Palm (Q1, 2004) with different versions. Pretec is also working with partners and may introduce the SD IO cards to be the cellular phone accessories so that cellular phone handset equipped with SD slot but without built-in camera can have the camera function through SmartCam; or users can share the cellular phone screen video to family and friends through big screen projector/TV using Pretec SD Presenter.

To continuously provide the technology, innovation and differentiated products to the market, Multi-Interface Cards with CF, USB and SD interface will be introduced around Q1, 2004. This pioneer technology will dramatically lead the I/O market to a new era and will provide the most versatile solutions to the existing PDA users today, and cellular phone users in the near future.

About PretecPretec™ Electronics Corp. (http://www.pretec.com) offers a complete spectrum of small form factor memory cards such as CompactFlash, SmartMedia™, MultiMediaCard™, and SD Card for the digital imaging, mobile computing, and Military/Industrial Control markets; and is the creator of Innovative CompactI/O™ and SD I/O cards for PocketPC™. From YR2002, PRETEC expands it's existing product line to digital cameras and many IA devices. Pretec has consistently demonstrated the highest capacity CF cards in the world; such as 80MB, 128MB, 160MB, 320MB, 640MB, 1.5GB, 2GB, 3GB and up to 6GB CF card at various locations around the world for the past years.

*Note: Pretec™, CompactI/O™, CompactCamera™, CompactPresenter™, CompactGPS™, CompactBT™, CompactWLAN™ and CompactGPRS™ are trademarks of Pretec Electronics Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned herein are recognized as the property of their respective holders.